XLam CLT walls, floors and stairs were readily available and fast to install — saving valuable time in this apartment project for Housing New Zealand.

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Set to be completed in February 2018, this new apartment building will soon add to Housing New Zealand's transitional accommodation supply in Auckland.

For the construction of the building, Alastair Miles of Miles Construction looked for time-efficient materials that could contribute towards faster completion. "We wanted to achieve an alternative to concrete because of the speed," says Miles. In the busy Auckland market, he was also keen to circumvent bottlenecks and long lead times. "XLam filled the gap."

"We used XLam because of the fire rating and structural ability too," explains Miles. "XLam was used for the structure — the walls, floors and stairs."

Ideal for projects where time is limited, XLam's cross laminated timber wall and floor panels were used for the apartments, providing exceptional strength, with only 20% of the weight of concrete. The large size and span capacity of the panels enabled fast installation, effectively reducing overall construction times.

XLam's Airstair, supplied pre-cut and ready-to-install, helped further reduce construction times. Designed using a CAD-based system and manufactured off-site with precision detail, XLam Airstairs are an efficient alternative to concrete and steel stairway systems. XLam Airstairs can be installed in a matter of hours, providing safe access to midfloors early in the build. In addition, the high density of the AirStair ensures an excellent fire rating.

"The installation went very well and due to the accuracies of XLam, we were able to preorder the windows, doors and roofs," adds Miles — a detail that helped avoid any delays in the supply line.

"The project is tracking well," says Miles. "It's been nice to work with XLam to come up with a good solution for Housing New Zealand. They’re a good team player and we've been able to work with them through the design process to get a pretty economic design."

Factory prefabricated CLT is used for floors in residential, commercial and industrial buildings, including floor diaphragms in multi-storied timber construction.

CLT is very economical for residential floors, particularly those on sloping ground where a flat floor platform can be quickly achieved. The span and cantilevering capabilities of CLT permit economies in foundation support.

XLam floor panels are craned into position at the rate of approximately 100sqm floor area per hour, meaning an entire house floor can be placed in less than four hours. This represents a large saving on-site labour.

As yet there are no Australian or NZ standards specific to the manufacture and use of CLT. However, CLT is very similar to Glue Laminated Timber in that it is manufactured from finger jointed, dried timber using glue lamination under pressure. XLam manufacture complies with Adopted Standards which govern the design, preparation, finger jointing, planing, lamination and verification of XLam CLT products:

As yet there are no Australian or NZ standards specific to the manufacture and use of CLT. However, CLT is very similar to Glue Laminated Timber in that it is manufactured from finger jointed, dried timber using glue lamination under pressure. XLam manufacture complies with Adopted Standards which govern the design, preparation, finger jointing, planing, lamination and verification of XLam CLT products: